good reading february 2012
18
In darkness I count my blessing like Manman taught me.
One: I am alive.
Two: there is no two.
Listen.
Listen –
You’re the voices in the dark, so the world can’t be all gone.
There must be people left.
You’re the voices in the dark, so listen, mwen apé parlay.
I’m going to tell you how I got here, and how I got this bullet
in my arm. I’m going to tell you about my sister, who was taken
from me by the gangsters, by the chimères. This was 2817 days
ago, when my papa was killed. At least, I think it was.
I used to know how many days, because I marked them in my
head. Now I don’t know if it’s two or three days I’ve been in the
darkness, so I don’t know how long ago my papa was chopped to
piti piti pieces and my sister was taken. But I know this – it hurts
every day as much as the last; as much as the first.
It hurts now, even, and you would think I had other things to
worry about, what with being trapped with no water and no food,
and no way out.
But maybe, maybe, if I tell you my story, then you’ll
understand me better, and the things I’ve done. Maybe you’ll, I
don’t know ... maybe you’ll forgive me.
Maybe she will.
My sister, she was my twin. She was one half of me. You have
to understand: a twin in Haiti, that’s a serious maji, it’s something
powerful. We were Marassa, man. You know Marassa? It’s a lwa,
a god, the god of twins – super-strong, superhardcore, even
though it looks like two little kids. It’s one of the oldest gods,
from Africa. Even now in vodou, Marassa comes right after Papa
Legba in the ceremony.
Marassa can heal you, can bring you good luck, can make
people fall in love with you. Marassa can double your money, see
your future, double your life.
People from where I come from, they believe human twins
can do the same; and talk to each other in silence, too, because
they share the same soul.
So you see? Me and my sister, we were magic. We were
meant to be. We were special; we shared the same soul. People
gave us presents, man, total strangers you know. People would
stop us in the street, want us to touch them for the blessing.
We shared the same soul. And when she was gone I became
half a person – I would like you to remember this, so that you
don’t judge me later. Remember: even now, as I lie in this
ruined hospital, I am only one half of a life, one half of a soul.
I know this. I have been told. That is why I have done the things
I have done.
But you don’t know them yet, of course, the things I’ve done,
the reasons why I am half a person, the reason why I was in this
hospital when everything fell down.
You don’t know the hurt I have caused.
So, I’m going to tell you everything.
First, I must explain the blood.
Some of it is mine. My bandage got all torn up when I was
crawling around, looking for my half of the necklace, and I cut
myself on some broken glass, I think. I already got shot, you
know that, so there’s blood coming from there too. The way the
hospital fell down, it hasn’t been so convenient for my healing.
I can’t explain all of the blood, though. I think some of it
comes from the dead bodies. This was a public ward, before the
ceiling and the walls fell down. There was a curtain around my
bed that the nurses could pull if I wanted to use the toilet, but that
was it for privacy. Those bodies are the other people who were in
here. When the walls fell down, they fell down on them. I can tell
because there is a hand near me and I reached out and touched
it, and followed it to the wrist and then the arm, feeling to see if
it was a man or a woman. I don’t know why. And I couldn’t tell
anyway, because after the arm there was no shoulder, just rubble.
Me,Iwaslucky–Iwasonthefarendofthewardandthe
walls didn’t come down here.
Though maybe I’m not so lucky, because I’m still trapped.
Maybe I’ll just die more slowly.
In Darkness by Nick Lake is published by Bloomsbury, rrp $24.99.
February 2012
main
book bitE 3
by Nick Lake
iN darkNess
In the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake a boy is trapped beneath the rubble
of a ruined hospital. Shorty is a child of the slums, a teenage boy who has seen
enough violence to last a lifetime, and who has been inexorably drawn into the
world of the gangsters who rule Site Soleil. but Shorty has a secret: a flame of
revenge that blazes inside him and a burning wish to find the twin sister he lost
five years ago. and he is marked. Marked in a way that links him with Toussaint
L’Ouverture, the Haitian rebel who 200 years ago led the slave revolt and faced
down Napoleon to force the french out of Haiti.
as he grows weaker, Shorty relives the journey that took him to the hospital
with a bullet wound in his arm. In his visions and memories he hopes to find the
strength to survive, and perhaps then Toussaint can find a way to be free ...
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15/12/11 9:22:44 PM